This page features brief excerpts of stories published by the mainstream
media and, less frequently, blogs, alternative media, and even obviously
biased sources. The excerpts are taken directly from the websites cited in
each source note. Quotation marks are not used.
Source: The New Yorker
Mar 27, 2023
Historian Kathryn Gin Lum, among other scholars, helps to shed light on the paradox that those who believe America is a "Christian nation" hold that view with greater militancy even as religious observance declines.
Source: Washington Post
Mar 27, 2023
In Michigan, the Democratic majority is repealing "right to work" laws and protecting abortion rights and LBGTQ antidsicrimination by law. Historians Erik Loomis and Michael Kazin argue that it's not a historical anomaly for the party to push for inclusion on multiple fronts.
Source: Washington Post
Mar 25, 2023
Legislation that would bar discussion of menstruation in Florida schools will likely put girls at risk of emotional distress when their periods begin. Historians stress that women have always sought this information despite stigmas against providing it.
Source: The Atlantic
Mar 24, 2023
Why would people understand marriage through the frame of work and expect to be happy? Historian Kristin Celello explains the alternatives.
Source: The Baffler
Mar 23, 2023
Elaine Schattner examines the work of activists who brought cancer diagnoses into the light and demanded that resources be invested in treating patients. It's not clear what can be done to help a typical American affort those treatments, though.
Source: The New Republic
Mar 23, 2023
Books by Kidada Williams and Mari Crabtree shift attention away from the motives and mentality of white racist terrorists toward the impact on African American cultural, political, and psychological life in the wake of attacks by the Klan and other vigilantes.
Source: The Guardian
Mar 23, 2023
by Quinn Slobodian
As pressure grew to end Apartheid, South African libertarians experimented with a deregulated zone that would be "Africa's Switzerland." It failed to become a model market utopia, but with sweatshops, environmental hazard, and stunted democracy, it was an eerie predictor of 21st century societies.
Source: Penguin
Mar 21, 2023
A fashion historian examines the accuracy of costuming and other design elements of historical dramas like "Bridgerton."
Source: The New Yorker
Mar 21, 2023
by Jay Caspian Kang
The decade saw Black players become dominant in the league and assert their rights as skilled workers. Owners pushed back through the media, smearing the players as entitled drug abusers, as historian Theresa Runstedtler's new book explains.
Source: Vice
Mar 21, 2023
“Stopping the existence of transgender people and the acceptance of trans people in the public sphere is to them some sort of religious imperative,” according to historian Thomas Lecaque.
Source: Responsible Statecraft
Mar 20, 2023
Historians, journalists, and international relations scholars assess whether lesser-known figures in government, media and intelligence deserve more blame for the Iraq invasion.
Source: Austin American-Statesman
Mar 19, 2023
“It's a powerful thing to give people access to inspiring histories, and so I think some people would rather those lessons of the past not be available," says the UT-Austin professor, recently recognized as a USA Today Woman of the Year.
Source: CNN
Mar 18, 2023
Critics have charged that Ibram X. Kendi's writing portrays racism as an all-powerful and unchangeable force in American society. He says that, in fact, understanding racism as "constructed" means it can be deconstructed.
Source: CNN
Mar 18, 2023
Carlo Vecce connected documents he discovered in the State Archives in Florence to conclude that Leonardo's mother, Caterina, was a woman brought from the Caucasus as a slave and emancipated by DaVinci's father soon after his birth. His choice to present the findings in fiction has drawn admirers and skeptics.
Source: Chronicle of Higher Education
Mar 17, 2023
by Maximillian Alvarez
From teaching assistants to cafeteria workers, labor exploitation and union busting are the shady underside of the modern university, according to three scholars active in the academic labor movement.
Source: Fox 32
Mar 17, 2023
The Northwestern historian's new book will arrive as the Supreme Court potentially decides the fate of affirmative action in college admissions.
Source: New York Times
Mar 16, 2023
The conservative Florida Citizens Alliance, a group allied with the DeSantis administration, has called for rejection of 28 of the 38 texts its members reviewed. One publisher's editing of the story of the Montgomery Boycott illustrates their power.
Source: WNYC
Mar 14, 2023
Born in Barbados, Shirley Chisholm moved to Brooklyn as a child. Her biographer discusses how her childhood heroes shaped her political worldview.
Source: New York Times
Mar 14, 2023
Legal historians Saul Cornell, Jennifer Tucker and others are in high demand as a legal consultant after the Bruen decision elevated the historical meaning of gun laws to importance in the judicial process.
Source: Past/Present Podcast
Mar 14, 2023
Three historians discuss the legacy of the disability rights activist.
